Kleenex crossbow

From one of my new woodworking books, this is the first of many fun little gizmos and gadgets I will be making.  And it fires quite well!

Skating Spectacular Stravanganza

Tonight was the holiday program for our skating classes, and they had open skating mixed with some exhibitions. Lots of snacks and more kids than you could count. It was a lot of fun!

Jill and Eli and Lily and I got to do a bunch of skating until completely wrung out. I snuck some practice in and even ended up in a death spiral of phenomenal proportions, but didn't even completely wipe out.

[Yesterday I walked to Target for lunch (1 mile there and back), home (3.5 miles) and then did an hour of skating lessons. Today I walked to Target for lunch again (1 more mile) and home (3.5 more) and then did tonight's skating for two hours. Needless to say, I am pretty wiped out.]

As for the exhibitions, we got to see a bunch of skaters..

Including one we knew! This is Tom's daughter:


She was quite good. There were more skaters..
Including a group!

And of course, a Zamboni wrapped it up!

The Kids

Just some notes on the kids, half bragging and half trying to remember things later.

• Came home from work one day and Lily was upset. She's in First Grade. She had tested to progress to the next reading level at school and did not achieve her goal. As a result she has to go up to the Fifth Grade classrooms *ALONE* to get new books, which is what she really was frustrated about. Her current level and new goal are four grades ahead. Yikes!
• Eli is really turning into a young man. He has this thing where he puts his hand on his chin in contemplation when he's thinking, it's really quite intelligent looking. His personality is also really coming into focus. More than a few times lately I've been interacting with him and can see a personality. Hard to explain.
• Lily's ice skating is coming along nicely - she can make a little spin standing still!
• Eli and I just finished "Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman.", a book (350 pages, no pictures!) of anecdotes from Richard Feynman's life. He was a brilliant physicist who not only worked on the atomic bomb project, but had a very interesting personality and way of communicating complex ideas. Anyway, I read the whole book to Eli. He said he liked it because he "didn't understand any of it" but really did get quite a bit of it. We both appreciate Feynman because of his unique and creative thinking methods. So Eli has gone back now and is reading it to himself.
• Lily is practicing her cartwheel constantly. Some day she'll nail that thing, but for now it's just a half-cartwheel/floppy thing.
• Eli and I have the same brain. Seriously. Half the time I feel awful for him and wish he wasn't cursed with my brain, the other half the time I feel great pride because he's a smart little bugger!
• Lily and Eli are still thick as thieves. Sometimes they bicker, but for the most part they just feed off each other and have a great time. Unfortunately, sometimes they use their powers for evil, not good. Like when we're all in the car and they've decided it's time for a snack.
• Eli has started programming. His goal is to write a game for the Nintendo DS (or GBA), and when he found out I knew how to develop for the DS he hounded me until I relented. (See how I did that?) After a brief shot at BASIC we moved on to Scratch, from MIT. It's a more abstract programming "language" that allows kids to get things going fairly quickly. Even has a repository online where they can all share code and share their applications. Very cool stuff, and he's hungry for more more more!
• Lily is playing the piano, and she's doing it like a musician. Two hands, reading music, using all sorts of complicated Piano words that I don't understand. :) Making beautiful music.

I love my kids more than life itself. It's so much fun to see them growing like this!

Squirtle

My latest Pokemon cross stitch pillow (for Lily)

Catching Up: Finally!

I have finally caught up on all of my old photo albums! (click on the month to be taken to that month's albums..)

May

Another beautiful spring month. We went to Bear Lake once and Lake George once. We also went to Brainerd for a water park weekend, Grandmpa & Grandpa's Christmas gift to our family and Uncle Ted's family. Jill and I got to see Bloc Party live, and I got to go on a couple TNRs. Lily had a spring program at school, and we found some time to make some silly family movies.

June

Quite a month! I went on a couple TNRs. I also caught Crystal Method in concert at First Avenue. Lily really refined her biking skills, and we all got to go to Camp Kici Yapi for a family open house. But the big event was our trip to New York and Washington D.C. Lots of pictures, fun, stories, and exhaustion!

July

The big event was Jill's birthday BBQ. Two trips to Bear Lake and a trip to Lake George continued our travels for the month. We spent a day down in Rochester visiting with Uncle Jerry, Aunt Jean and Uncle Leo at Quarry Hill park and beyond. We got to see the cousins at home and at the cabin. We also attended the Rein in Sarcoma event at Como, a great experience! I began work on the Tweedledum, my homebrew boat. Finally, the kids attended a Children's Theater summer day camp complete with performance at the end of the week.

August

I completed the tweedledum and spent a weekend hanging with the scooter friends at a local rally. Two trips to Bear Lake including a stop to see the Lundbergs at their wonderful cabin. We were lucky enough to see the cousins again - and spend some time with them at the State Fair! Jill and I took her Mom to the Suzanne Vega concert, which we all really enjoyed. The kids had a last daycamp at Articulture with another performance at the end of the week. Finally, we began a new adventure with Lily changing schools to Lyndale, our new community school! (Eli will be changing next year)

September

The kids started school - Lily now takes the "walking bus" with other neighborhood kids. We went to Lake George for a weekend and launched the Tweedledum successfully! Our new favorite local restaurant is El Paraiso where they have monster Margarita's and great food. The new 38th Street Festival was a great hit, also. Finally, Robert and his scooter friends drove to CANADA for a long weekend. (And a long ride!)

October

Summer winds down with just a single trip to Bear Lake. We even saw some snow. Jill and Robert went to see Moby for an early anniversary and then for a late anniversary/birthday for Jill attended A Prairie Home Companion. We went to the Rennaisance festival with Jill's Mom. Finally, Halloween was a hit with our Ghost and Mermaid.

.. and that catches us up. Watch for more monthly summaries as the months roll by. I promise never to get this far behind again!

Skating

Last lesson of the "semester" last night and I passed!  As a result, Tom will be following up on his bluff and taking the next level with me, hee heee!  And I need some new figure skates.

Star Wars: Lego Wampa Ice Cave

Eli and I were playing Lego. He was working on a "Hoth" and I thought I'd add a Wampa and ice cave. Complete with suspended Luke and old bones!

Cross Stitching, summer must be over

Did this guy in ONE DAY - actually an afternoon and an evening. It's Lily's favorite Pokemon character. Eli's Charizard is next, but that's quite a bit larger...

And this next one I dedicate to Tom and the rest of the gang on the TNR:

(If you don't understand, you're better off for it!)